Excerpts from “Options For Storing Precious Metals”
By Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts
“In this article, we summarize some of the better-known custodial, vaulting, and digital gold arrangements available to individual investors in precious metals and provide a list of considerations for those interested in exploring these and other alternatives available to them…“
We provide some key definitions:
- Allocated Account (versus Unallocated Account)
- Bailee
- Chain of Integrity
- Custodian
- Depository
- LBMA
- LBMA Good Delivery Status
- Safe Deposit Box
- Trustee
- Vault
And some key questions to ask, e.g.:
- Are your precious metals held in allocated or unallocated, segregated or unsegregated, form? If both options are available, what are the price differentials for individual metals?
- What relationship does the storage facility have to the investor, i.e., is it a bailee/custodian, agent or trustee or does it provide limited services at the investor’s risk?
- Is there insurance against theft? Fraud? Does the insurance run to the investor individually, or to the storage facility or to some other intermediary?
- What auditing arrangements are provided?
- If an online purchase or liquidation facility is involved, what security measures prevent identity theft? Who is responsible for breaches of the system? What is the credit of any responsible party?
- If the precious metals are purchased and/or held in a foreign country or state, what tax, customs, privacy and other laws apply?
- If the storage facility or an affiliate also operates investment funds, how does that relationship affect holdings of precious metals by individual investors?
We describe a few different types of storage options:
- GoldMoney
- VIA MAT International
- Bullion Management Group
- Perth Mint
- Delaware Depository Service Company
- GoldSilverVault.com
- Security Center
- The Swiss Option
It is now available on an open basis as of August 11, 2010.
